A chance to question Lilian Bellamy from BBC Radio 4’s farm soap The Archers

Heather Jan Brunt

Archers fan desperate to know what will happen to Brookfield Farm and David and Ruth Archer have the chance to question actress Sunny Ormonde, who plays Lilian Bellamy in the world’s longest running radio soap.

Sunny is coming to the Thame Players Theatre on Sunday and will be taking questions, in character as Lilian, as well as herself.

But it’s doubtfulwhether she will be able to shed any light on the controversial storyline which has caused so much angst amongst fans.

In an exclusive interview she said: “I know I will receive a huge amount of questions on that storyline, but I don’t know what the outcome will be.

“You never know the route a story will take, it can appear to be one thing and may turn out to be something else.”

Sunny has been in the popular show for 15 years and recently endured a big storyline herself when her partner in the show, Matt Crawford, played by Kym Durham, left Lilian to go to Costa Rica and took valuable paintings and wine with him.

Sunny admits: “I have been devastated both as Lilian and Sunny, because we were very much an item, but this is life and one has to move on.”

Sunny, who in real life is a dairy farmer’s daughter from Cheshire, says the actors on the soap are contracted from month to month and never see scripts ahead of time.

She said: “We are not guaranteed a job for life, you don’t know what will happen to your character.”

Her show, An Evening with Sunny Ormonde, looks back at the actress’s life and career with anecdotes, poetry and banter.